Joe Biden is the new president of the United States, although half of the country's Republicans believe he stole the election. A lot of people believe conspiracy theories on the other side of the Atlantic. But they aren't only found there.
Conspiracy theories are not exclusive to people who storm the U.S. Capitol.
"Everyone believes at least one conspiracy theory," says Asbjørn Dyrendal, a professor in NTNU's Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies who specializes in conspiracy theories.
The more conspiracy theories you bring up, the more people answer yes to one of them.
That fact leads American conspiracy researcher Joseph Uscinski at the University of Miami to posit that all people believe in at least one conspiracy theory. Dyrendal basically agrees, but he modifies Uscinski's statement slightly, saying all people believe some conspiracy theory "a little."
Joe Biden is the new president of the United States, although half of the country's Republicans believe he stole the election. A lot of people believe conspiracy theories on the other side of the Atlantic. But they aren't only found there.
Conspiracy theories are not exclusive to people who storm the U.S. Capitol.
"Everyone believes at least one conspiracy theory," says Asbjørn Dyrendal, a professor in NTNU's Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies who specializes in conspiracy theories.
The more conspiracy theories you bring up, the more people answer yes to one of them.
That fact leads American conspiracy researcher Joseph Uscinski at the University of Miami to posit that all people believe in at least one conspiracy theory. Dyrendal basically agrees, but he modifies Uscinski's statement slightly, saying all people believe some conspiracy theory "a little."
Maybe you don't think that the Earth is flat or that the Moon landings were faked and kept under wraps by all 400 000 individuals involved. Maybe you don't believe that vaccines cause autism and that the authorities are doing this on purpose, or that 5G is messing up your head, even if you're not exactly alone in that case.
We are all more vulnerable to believing what we think is right, especially when our identity is at stake and emotions are strong. It can be a bit like the emotions associated with football.
These examples activate the same mechanisms that come into play when our thoughts build on themselves and turn into more entrenched conspiracy beliefs.
"Maybe you think the referee is out to get your football team, especially when one of your team's players gets fouled in the box and no penalty is called," says Dyrendal.
Maybe you even think a lot of referees are against your team, especially if you believe you're seeing a pattern, like your team never or only rarely getting a penalty kick.
This thinking doesn't usually amount to a conspiracy theory in and of itself. But the same mechanisms come into play when thoughts build on themselves and turn into more entrenched conspiracy beliefs.
People can have degrees of conspiracy thinking as well. There's a difference between yelling at the ref in a heated moment and believing that the Earth is flat.
You can find people who believe in the most unusual conspiracy theories everywhere, perhaps even in your own mirror.
"But several common characteristics recur," says Dyrendal.
Conspiracy theorists typically:
tend to have a little less education.
more often live in societies that have less successful democracies, which influences trust in others and in the authorities.
belong to groups that feel they should have more power and influence.
belong to special political organizations or religious groups a little more often.
more often use intuition - their "gut feeling" - when making decisions.
see connections more often than most people do, also where such connections do not exist, and they are more likely to see intention as the cause of events.
are a little more narcissistic and paranoid than others.
more often obtain their information from social media.
"We've noticed that conspiracy theorists are somewhat more likely to find their news sources on social media," says Dyrendal.
This has a bit to do with how social media works.
Social media can create echo chambers. The media is structured in such a way that you mostly hear from friends and other sources that you already agree with. "Likes" and posts that you click on influence what you see later. This makes it easy to confirm suspicions and perceptions that you already have. And you'll always find a community of other individuals who feel and think a little like you do.
However, just blaming Twitter and Facebook for this phenomenon is a gross oversimplification. It may seem as if more people than ever before believe in the strangest conspiracy theories, but in fact we don't know if this is true.
You may think that men are conspiracy theorists more often than women, but that's actually not true.
"When we look at a large number of different conspiracy theories, we find no reliable gender differences in the average scores," says Dyrendal.
But who believes in which theories can be different, although the differences don't necessarily revolve exclusively around gender. They may have more to do with dominance.
Answers & Comments
Joe Biden is the new president of the United States, although half of the country's Republicans believe he stole the election. A lot of people believe conspiracy theories on the other side of the Atlantic. But they aren't only found there.
Conspiracy theories are not exclusive to people who storm the U.S. Capitol.
"Everyone believes at least one conspiracy theory," says Asbjørn Dyrendal, a professor in NTNU's Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies who specializes in conspiracy theories.
The more conspiracy theories you bring up, the more people answer yes to one of them.
That fact leads American conspiracy researcher Joseph Uscinski at the University of Miami to posit that all people believe in at least one conspiracy theory. Dyrendal basically agrees, but he modifies Uscinski's statement slightly, saying all people believe some conspiracy theory "a little."
Answer:
Joe Biden is the new president of the United States, although half of the country's Republicans believe he stole the election. A lot of people believe conspiracy theories on the other side of the Atlantic. But they aren't only found there.
Conspiracy theories are not exclusive to people who storm the U.S. Capitol.
"Everyone believes at least one conspiracy theory," says Asbjørn Dyrendal, a professor in NTNU's Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies who specializes in conspiracy theories.
The more conspiracy theories you bring up, the more people answer yes to one of them.
That fact leads American conspiracy researcher Joseph Uscinski at the University of Miami to posit that all people believe in at least one conspiracy theory. Dyrendal basically agrees, but he modifies Uscinski's statement slightly, saying all people believe some conspiracy theory "a little."
Maybe you don't think that the Earth is flat or that the Moon landings were faked and kept under wraps by all 400 000 individuals involved. Maybe you don't believe that vaccines cause autism and that the authorities are doing this on purpose, or that 5G is messing up your head, even if you're not exactly alone in that case.
We are all more vulnerable to believing what we think is right, especially when our identity is at stake and emotions are strong. It can be a bit like the emotions associated with football.
These examples activate the same mechanisms that come into play when our thoughts build on themselves and turn into more entrenched conspiracy beliefs.
"Maybe you think the referee is out to get your football team, especially when one of your team's players gets fouled in the box and no penalty is called," says Dyrendal.
Maybe you even think a lot of referees are against your team, especially if you believe you're seeing a pattern, like your team never or only rarely getting a penalty kick.
This thinking doesn't usually amount to a conspiracy theory in and of itself. But the same mechanisms come into play when thoughts build on themselves and turn into more entrenched conspiracy beliefs.
People can have degrees of conspiracy thinking as well. There's a difference between yelling at the ref in a heated moment and believing that the Earth is flat.
You can find people who believe in the most unusual conspiracy theories everywhere, perhaps even in your own mirror.
"But several common characteristics recur," says Dyrendal.
Conspiracy theorists typically:
tend to have a little less education.
more often live in societies that have less successful democracies, which influences trust in others and in the authorities.
belong to groups that feel they should have more power and influence.
belong to special political organizations or religious groups a little more often.
more often use intuition - their "gut feeling" - when making decisions.
see connections more often than most people do, also where such connections do not exist, and they are more likely to see intention as the cause of events.
are a little more narcissistic and paranoid than others.
more often obtain their information from social media.
"We've noticed that conspiracy theorists are somewhat more likely to find their news sources on social media," says Dyrendal.
This has a bit to do with how social media works.
Social media can create echo chambers. The media is structured in such a way that you mostly hear from friends and other sources that you already agree with. "Likes" and posts that you click on influence what you see later. This makes it easy to confirm suspicions and perceptions that you already have. And you'll always find a community of other individuals who feel and think a little like you do.
However, just blaming Twitter and Facebook for this phenomenon is a gross oversimplification. It may seem as if more people than ever before believe in the strangest conspiracy theories, but in fact we don't know if this is true.
You may think that men are conspiracy theorists more often than women, but that's actually not true.
"When we look at a large number of different conspiracy theories, we find no reliable gender differences in the average scores," says Dyrendal.
But who believes in which theories can be different, although the differences don't necessarily revolve exclusively around gender. They may have more to do with dominance.
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SOURCE : G.O.O.G.L.E,,
BC oz I'm too lazy to type